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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 14, 2006 Mayor the main course at free meal Morrison fields many questions, concerns By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings Mayor John Morrison spent more than an hour Tuesday eating a plate of cooked vegetables, patiently answering a slew of questions from one segment of his concerned constituency. Morrison attended Peace House’s weekly community meal and fielded questions and some mild berating from the regulars who attend Uncle Food’s Diner’s free meal. “The city is not going after you,” he told the crowd of mostly homeless or underpriviledged people who eat at the weekly free community meal. “Or people in [the downtown] area. It was a problem with criminal behavior that I hope is behind us.” Not everyone believed him. Bennett Tanner told Morrison that he has lived in Ashland for six years and not until this year did he ever have a problem with the police. “It seems like just recently I’ve been unreasonably picked on and profiled,” he said, telling stories of being followed on his bike by police officers as well as being told he could not buy a bottle of wine from Safeway. “I feel I’m a productive citizen. I have no criminal record. I’ve lived in Ashland for six years and Ashland police had not bothered me until quite recently.” Morrison invited Tanner to his office to discuss the matter further, saying, “If you come to my office, I will look into it.” Others took exception to the benches being removed from the Plaza and feared the free meal would be next. “There has been a very disturbing pattern among public officials to take way the gathering spots of the poor,” Kirk Tierney said, becoming visibly angry as he spoke. “There has been a pattern of destroying where we gather. This is my family meal. Are you going to destroy that, too?” A man named Komac said he had “read the business people’s complaint [in an article in the Sneak Preview]. It’s hard not to see it as a statement.” “It was not a conspiracy by any means,” Morrison responded. He told the group that the city council had authorized the city to realign the benches on the Plaza. Others took exception to the way former police chief Mike Bianca was removed from his responsibilities. “Why did Mike Bianca have to go?” asked Randy Dolinger. Morrison, for the first time publicly, said it was his decision to make a change in the police department. “I felt we needed to make a change in the department,” he said. “There was a vote of no confidence (from the police officers union on Bianca). I gave it 15 months and rather than making progress it moved in the other direction.” He said the new police chief, Ron Goodpaster, has made a “strong commitment to community policing. Not policing for the wealthy but for everyone,” he said. Still others asked Morrison if there was any chance of increasing the amount of community meals that are available in Ashland. “Is there ever going to be a possibility, down the road to do that,” asked Vincent Muolo, coordinator of Uncle Food’s Diner. “If we could find a facility to do a breakfast or another dinner, all we need is the facility.” Morrison responded, “I don’t think it’s impossible.” To which someone in the crowd shouted, “Yeah but it’s not likely.” Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or [email protected]. . DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams